Noah Cooper's Book Review

1. Opinion Writing – Book Review
A Child Called “It” One Child’s Courage to Survive by Dave Pelzer
“A Child Called It” is an unsettling self-memoir of a young boy named Dave Pelzer.
Dubbed one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history, Pelzer vividly recounted
the mistreatments he experienced at the hands of his mother, Catherine Roerva, who seemed to
be dealing with borderline personality disorder and severe alcoholism.
Pelzer’s recollections are unnervingly descriptive. It feels almost impossible not to shiver
at the thought of the extent Roerva went to torture her son.
The story begins with Pelzer’s remembrance of being taken to a foster home after
concerned teachers contacted the police regarding Pelzer’s physical appearance. Before the
second chapter had begun, the memoir left me intrigued into what events led to the removal of
Pelzer from his own household.
Pelzer then begins to recount the torture he received from his unravelling mother. He was
forced to participate in twisted games, equivalent to what one might experience in an real life,
authentic “Saw” movie. In great detail, Pelzer describes being force-fed bleach, ammonia and
even his own vomit on numerous occasions. He also describes the extreme lengths Roerva went
to starve Pelzer as he clung onto any possible hope of eventual freedom.
While difficult to not feel bad for the abuse Pelzer suffered as a young boy, his poorly
written memoir left me with more questions than answers.
In terms of literary work, “A Child Called It” reads at roughly a fifth grade reading level.
It’s simply a recollection of one event after another. For a memoir, the book offers little to no

2. introspection from Pelzer regarding topics such as family dynamics. These include why his
mother devolved into a torturous monster so quickly, the relationship between his brothers, why
he was singled out instead of other family members, his strange relationship with his father or
even self-analysis of the situation afterwards. Aside from abuse after abuse, Pelzer gives readers
no outside information about his family that would help delicately add to the narrative of the
memoir.
The far-fetched nature of some events Pelzer claims to have experienced in his memoir,
leads to even more questions about the believability of certain parts of the book.
That’s not to say Pelzer wasn’t abused, as many of the events likely happened, but some
details described by Pelzer in “A Child Called It” seem blatantly exaggerated. At times it felt
hard to believe someone who couldn’t remember his own mother’s hair color or facial
appearance, but could accurately and vividly recount specific events that happened to him down
to the day.
“A Child Called It” does an acceptable job at taking a deep-dive into one of the worst
child abuse cases in American history. The childhood memoir is deeply saddening, but Pelzer’s
failure to tell a consistent story, by leaving key important and informative details out, led to its
eventual downfall.
Overall: 2.5/5